


Closely Engaged

by Shutka



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 06:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6273325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shutka/pseuds/Shutka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trust is a valuable commodity, and no pirate likes getting robbed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closely Engaged

The captain of the Scarborough told Billy things. Gossip was what held civilization together, after all. He'd said so once, in Billy's presence, and he took great relish in repeating that wisdom while his men paid Billy for their broken noses and scars with clenched fists. This captain knew the right kind of gossip. And Billy, he said, was a likely lad, his eyes taking in Billy's slumped body, crown to feet, with the contempt of a man who joined up at the rank of an officer. A man who had never had to suffer the indignities of any cabin boy and had therefore managed to convince himself such indignities were all their fault. Billy would be likelier than most to bring Flint in, he said.

Billy had his own thoughts on what moved the world, but he was disinclined to share them. Gossip, for example, was nothing without trust. A man would have to believe it for it to mean anything. The wildest tale, the boldest lie had more power than a truth nobody wanted to trust. Flint had convinced him, not only that he was a capable man but also that he was a man who gave a damn, and it was not all on Flint. Flint had convinced him only because Billy had wanted to believe in him. He had looked into Flint's eyes and wanted to see himself reflected in them, wanted to matter.

But he did not matter to Flint.

Billy tucked the knowledge close to his heart like a charm, a stone on a cord around his neck like a noose, weighing him down so he would never forget and allow himself to be seduced into believing the same lie. He thought perhaps things would have been very different without this heavy piece of gossip, but there it was.

Eventually, the Royal Navy saw fit to release him, and Billy came back to his own crew. To his own captain, who held him in his arms and whispered words of welcome he might even have meant. He played Billy good.

And Billy slotted into the place left for him with the ease of water sloshing into a hole.

He thought, sometimes, of Gates, conjured up his face before sleep when it was safest to think of unsafe things. Gates' mistake must have been Billy's. He told Flint he would never turn his back on him, and meant never turn his back _to_ him. Not unless he wanted to be stabbed in the back twice.

So Billy sought to make himself indispensable where before he'd made himself useful, and Flint let his guard down, little by little. Not because of Billy's looks or any special regard he had for him, no matter what the smug, polished men of the Navy insinuated. Flint only trusted that when push came to shove Billy would do as Flint wanted, like he always had in the past. Billy saved the man's life and captaincy time and again, without being asked, kept him out of trouble like Gates had, and Flint trusted that Billy would be just as useful, biddable, and in the end just as easily removed as Gates had been.

It was easy to lie with a near truth.

Billy let himself get caught watching the Captain. He let his confusion and betrayal show just enough to make Flint wonder at the reasons for his inaction, to believe he had argued Billy out of his resentment. Eventually Billy let the man think he had figured out what Billy wanted from him, and it came so easy, as easy as pirating.

And a man in love isn't half as trusting as a man who believes himself to be loved. Flint didn't take Billy up on his unspoken offer, but he would, one day soon. No sense wasting an opportunity that fell into his lap. Flint had lost his wits for a fancy lord who recited pretty words he read in books with gilded covers and called his self-indulgence philosophy, and Billy's greatest advantage was that he could never measure up to that standard. He could pose no danger to the memory of a man so important the blood of countless others couldn't wash him away from Flint's heart, and so Billy was safe to be used in this way as in others. When the time came, Billy would open his legs gladly, rack up the leverage like loot. They would dance the dance, because that’s what you did, and with any luck Flint wouldn't notice Billy wasn't the one being led.

Sometimes you had to engage the enemy closely if you wanted to succeed.


End file.
